Job Experience

My Experience at the Discovery Channel

I am a Marketing Strategy intern for the Discovery Channel. While marketing strategy as a profession has many components, the best way I can describe it is the intersection of business and creativity. I find that this intersection uses both my right and left brain and I like the challenge. My days in the office are always different and I am never bored. My projects vary from day to day but I am always challenged and I legitimately enjoy coming into work every day.

There are two main components of marketing strategy that I deal with on a daily basis.

·      Data analysis

·      Design

Data Analysis

The business component of marketing strategy lies in the data that is collected from each campaign. Everything from, where a TV commercial was viewed the most to how long someone spends looking at an ad, is information that can utilized to make future campaigns successful.

I am also tasked with running focus groups which are used to test campaign on a sample of ordinary people who may view the campaign. By running a focus group before a campaign goes live, the marketing team is able to get feedback on what is appealing about a campaign and potentially what needs work.

Design

On the more artistic side of things, I am tasked with designing campaigns based on aesthetic appeal which includes

·      Choosing a layout

·      Designing logos

·      Editing images

The start of a marketing campaign for any show on The Discovery Channel generally begins with a photoshoot of the talent, or the main characters in the show. Once my department gets these images we must edit them so that they are ready to be used in marketing materials.

This side of marketing is much more creative, and I am able to mainly utilize my creative right brain. While the initial stages of creating a marketing campaign are very free, ultimately all campaigns are altered to conform to the research and data that has been collected. Everything from picking specific colors that have tested well in the past to the size of the font can be packed with some sort of research and data.

All of the research and design come together into what is called a “campaign.” These campaigns include

·      Social media art

·      Commercials

·      Website banners

·      Billboards

·      Bus shelter advertisements

Campaigns

Although the work on the day to day changes, the general structure of my projects are broken up into “campaigns.” Campaigns are essentially all the material that go into the marketing of (in the case of Discovery) a TV show. Everything from TV commercials, social media posts and snapchat filters to magazine ads and flying banners all fall within the marketing departments work. In order to make all of these components as successful as possible a lot of research going into it. Data on past Discovery campaigns as well as other data available in the marketplace, regarding other competing TV shows, are used to ensure that the campaign is as successful as possible. Some of this data may include time of day in which commercials reach the most people or which cities and states are viewers loyal vs which cities could use more exposure (ie should see the ads more).

Experience

I have been working at Discovery for about a year now and have thus far really enjoyed my experience. I love the face paced nature of working in TV and how every day is something new and exciting.